SOURCE: “What Do Men Really Want?,” in Belles Lettres, Vol. 7, No. 2, Winter, 1991-92, pp. 18-19.

In the following review, Schaumburger offers a positive assessment of Isobars.

As a fervent admirer of Janette Turner Hospital's first collection of stories, Dislocations, I must reluctantly admit to a twinge of disappointment with her latest, Isobars. Perhaps it is because of the author's—as yet—unsure handling of the elements some reviewers have likened to magic realism, but that seems to me more akin to the metaphysical twists in Muriel Spark's fiction. Yet, Hospital deserves commendation for embarking on such a complex, promising artistic experiment, even if it does not always succeed.

Isobars are imaginary lines on a weather map connecting places of equal barometric pressure. Similarly, all of Hospital's characters are torn between past and present, between their Australian homeland and long-ago relationships that they have postponed resolving and their location...